Worth it

For almost two years now, I've been dealing with costochondritis -- a condition of inflammed muscles & connective tissue between ribs -- which sometimes gets so bad I have trouble sleeping.  It's been bad all this week, and I've been resisting taking the NSAIDs around the clock, but the pain was interfering with my work.  As I'm currently the only gainfully employed member of the Plaid Patrol, it's rather important that I be able to work!  So I took some OTC NSAIDs Wednesday night, and followed with more eight hours later, and again Thursday afternoon.  I'd been afraid I wouldn't be able to enjoy the class in Fair Isle knitting, since I was hurting so.  But by class time, I wasn't in such bad shape -- still hurting, just not to the point of it being a total distraction.  And the class was just lovely, a real upper for my mood -- and I'm knitting a Fair Isle cap for a toddler!  I can so totally do this.  Had to buy some Dreamz needles (two sizes, there's ribbing involved), and I rather like them in spite of them being wooden.  I am just thrilled to be FINALLY getting to this year's "Knitting Resolution".  So, who else wishes they were Kate Davies cousin? 

Still plugging away on the Bunny Hop, but I think my "jogless" stripes on the first sleeve are kinda wonky.  I hate the thought, but I may have to frog & reknit, see if I can make that transition smoother.  Also, I think I may try carrying the yarn up the sleeve -- although it will always be two strands carried, I guess I can catch them alternately.  The stripes are all 8 rows deep, and I think I can use less yarn if I carry it along.  Sure hope I have enough!  Maybe the sleeves will be 3/4 length? 

What new craft techniques are YOU learning?  And who is your teacher?

Claimed!

Amy aka knitterofhats has claimed the larger stitchmarker set, with the green beads. I plan to close the giveaway this Friday at midnight our time (Central time zone), so hurry up & comment on Cha-cha-changes!
I'm working on something I've never done before: duplicate stitch! I made some more hats for the Sarge, in Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick & Quick colors Barley & whatever they call their olive green (haven't looked at the ball band; it's pretty obviously olive!). For the barley (brown) I used a partial ball left from all the cowl knitting. I got to the last 3 rows, and ran out!! So I grabbed some leftover Oatmeal color worsted Wool Ease, triple-stranded it & used it to close the top of the hat. Doesn't look bad, but something made me offer to duplicate stitch in the Oatmeal on the rest of the hat, just a few simple shapes. It's trickier than I thought it would be. So far, I have a squashed-looking diamond shape, a scraggly rectangle, and a slightly lop-sided X on 3 of the wide ribs of the hat. Terrific. I hope I get better at it very quickly!

Mulligan

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I took the Chunky Monkey Hat home Wednesday night, and removed the ears--I'd decided they were A) too small and B) placed too high on the hat. So I got out a bigger crochet hook (an N - seriously big) and remade those ears, sewed the new ears on the hat, and took more pics of the hat being modelled by our sweet little TomTom Kitty. DiscoDame & I about laughed ourselves silly. So, now it's on my desk at work, waiting for the "client" to pick it up, and garnering a few compliments. I did put it in the wash between the picture-taking and bringing it to work; the yarn is so much softer now!


It looks like I'll have to make another one for TomTom; he's enjoying it so!

Small victories

Dear Diary,
Today I learned to do a tubular cast on! It's totally tubular and gnarly, dudes!
And how many of you can do this neat trick? I sure wish I'd learnt it before I cast on the Moc Croc Socks again. I've got about 5" of the leg done already.
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On the not-so-victorious side, the death toll for the Flood of 2010 keeps rising, even as the waters are receding. Locally, one teen and one older man are missing, presumed lost to the flood. I feel so sad for the families of the missing & dead. Several local radio stations have been raising funds for the Red Cross, and of course today is the National Day of Prayer -- so these poor folks will be remembered in prayer, and their folks will be remembered in service.
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I've had some comments about the tubular cast on I've learned. I went to a blog called My Fashionable Life (//autoscopia.com/amelia/archives/2005/11/tubular_cast_on), which is not where I first saw this & thought I might be able to follow the instruction, but I can't find the one I thought I'd seen...Don't we just love the innerwebs? Anyway, Amelia makes it pretty clear & I actually got it to work the very first time I tried it! And it looks great. And is stretchy, which is so super as I have a hard time keeping my cast-ons from being too tight. So now I can make the ribbed brims of my hats lots stretchier, which will be a lot more comfortable. Ok, for the next commission, I'm making a hat for Miss A, who has a smallish head. I'm using Lion Brand Wool Ease, worsted, double-stranded. The hat called for a bulky yarn, and I've just about got gauge (yes, I swatched! Can you believe it! I know!) with this doubled. I'm using color "Wheat", which is kinda like their "Oatmeal" only with strands of brown & copper thru it. Miss A has problems with wool, but at 20% there's not going to be enough here to bother her. The other commission is one I'm not sure I agreed to, it was just assumed that I'd take care of it. Anyway, it's another knitted baby hat! Should be fun, and I'll likely keep the leftover sock yarn. I think I'm developing a mini-stash of partial balls of sock yarn, which I'd like to use for one of those mitered square baby blankets. It'll be a while before I have enough.